It's not for everyone. But if you think it's for you - if you believe that beauty is its own reward - find the biggest canvas on which to behold this movie that you possibly can. It's IMAX for aesthetes.

Hou's kinetic yet serene approach to martial arts is like watching a fast-moving river. It's less about the plot and body count and more about contemplating a story rich in symbols and multiple meanings.

Hou Hsiao-hsien's historical drama, set in ninth-century China, fuses political struggles and family grudges into images of a sumptuous stillness, which he punctuates with spasms of extravagant martial artistry.

If The Assassin is sometimes agonisingly slow, it's also agonisingly well-crafted, and it's an agony that regularly tips into ecstasy as Hou allows us to be lost in the period, people and places he offers us.